The Natural Superiority of Women (42 page)

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Authors: Ashley Montagu

Tags: #Social Science, #Anthropology, #Cultural, #Women's Studies, #test

BOOK: The Natural Superiority of Women
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the effect that relatively few women have achieved greatness in the fields in which men have excelled.
Even at this late date how many women enjoy the same opportunities as men to become great scientists? Although in all fields women receiving the doctorate are brighter than their male counterparts, and there are no differences in their productivity, the durability of women on the job is often greater than that of men. Nevertheless, their rate of promotion and their salaries still tend to be somewhat lower.

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As the editor of
Science,
Philip H. Abelson, stated in an editorial, "There has been massive discrimination against women in academia." And he pointed out that while in 1972 only about 2 percent of women were full professors in our major universities, women obtained 12 percent of the doctorates annually awarded.
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For centuries it was quite impossible for women to even think of entering into activities regarded as the exclusive preserve of men. It was taken for granted that women could never succeed in any "male" occupation. Since the occupations were by definition
male,
it was hardly conceivable that any woman would even dream of entering them. Even though the citadels of male privilege have to some extent been breached, full equality has yet to be achieved. Discrimination against women is still a factor very much to be reckoned with.
During the greater part of the nineteenth century, the medical profession continued its tradition of excluding women from its ranks. The first woman to receive a medical degree and a license to practice medicine was Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) in the year 1849; her sister Emily (1826-1910) followed, and also graduated as a doctor. Both women overcame many rejections, and ultimately worked together to emerge triumphantly from the ordeal to make splendid innovative contributions to medical education for women. These included medical schools for women, and hospitals and infirmaries, both in America and England. It was not, however, until the late 1870s that women in Europe were admitted to medical schools in somewhat larger numbers.
In 1854 Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) in England, and Clara Barton (1821-1912) in the United States, organized the first nursing units to serve the injured and the sick in army camps and on the battlefields of their respective countries. Each founded the Red Cross organization of her country, and pioneered

 

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in sanitation and hygiene. Nevertheless, despite these and other widely applauded achievements, women continued to be largely barred from medical schools.
To this day, while planned home births are increasing, there are only about 30 nurse-midwife programs in medical schools, and the medical establishment remains especially opposed to home-birth caremidwivesin spite of admirable records of benefits to newborns and mothers. This is also true of family birth centers, all of which have been brought into being and administered by women. Such centers frequently provide much needed related treatment and education for young people. Benevolence, it would seem, in a male-dominated world, emanates more spontaneously from women then from men. Another orthodox citadel of masculine infallibility is the view that babies should be born in a hospital, and that the whole process of pregnancy and birth should be in the hands of the obstetrician.
To this it should be said that birth is neither a disease nor a disorder, despite the mandate by the medical profession that women must have their babies in hospital. Prenatal check-ups of the pregnant mother should, of course, be the rule both for the welfare of the baby and the mother. As for "delivery," babies may be "delivered" in fairy tales, but in reality the birth of a baby is due to the combined work of baby and mother, while the father should be participating in the memorable event by providing the comfort that his helpmeet needs so much. The birth of a baby is the most dramatic and thrilling event a family can enjoy. It is not a medical emergency. Relating to all this should be the obstetrician, in the event that his or her expertise is needed. Understandably, it is asked by some women, "What if there is an emergency?" The answer is that preparation for such a contingency could be taken care of by regular check-ups during pregnancy, and that in a well-ordered society, most untoward developments during childbirth could be prevented at a cost considerably less than the cost of training a soldier for combat.
Now that medical schools have become trade schools, and medicine an industry, a complete reorganization of both medical education and the practice of medicine is imperative. What is needed are technologists with a heart, caregivers who care for the patient; lovers of humanity, of the person, able to love others more than one loves oneself. Then we shall have achieved genuine health.

 

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Music and painting are most frequently cited as two arts in which women have been engaged for several hundred years. During that time there have been many male musicians of genius, not a single female composer of any note, and a few instrumentalists of the first quality. If it is said that there were no incentives for women to excel in these arts, one may ask whether there was any incentive for them to excel in singing, for there have been many great women singers, as all the world knows. Ever since the first mother sang her infant to sleep, song and chant have been universally associated with women. Lullabies and lieder, dirges and laments, have from the earliest times naturally been a gift of women. The first songs the male learns are most often learned from women. There is, therefore, a long and acceptable tradition of woman as a singer. Her voice can produce effects that no man's can, and these are beautiful and colorful. Hence, we may be reasonably sure that song is one natural capacity in which women from the earliest times have been allowed their freedom. The nurturing of women singers in our culture may represent the persisting practice of an immemorial tradition.
In musical composition and the public performance of music, however, it is a different matter. Sophie Drinker, in her book,
Music and Women,

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has shown that women have not been musically creative in our culture owing to the historical causes that brought about a nonpermissive environment for the woman musician. The music of our culture was originally indissolubly bound to organized religion and limited to church use. Women were officially debarred from playing any part in the religious ceremony and so became automatically cut off from the main source and inspiration for original creativity in music. Nuns, who occupied a specific place in the hierarchy, composed only liturgical and extraliturgical music and then only within the limits of the few opportunities offered them. Drinker points out:

When men and women freed themselves from the heavy restrictions placed upon the free use of music by the churchmen and began to use music apart from ritual and liturgy, women were
theoretically
able to function again as musicians. But the leaders in music were still those connected with, or employed by, religious officials, and according to the established custom of over a thousand years, were all men. Effective musical education and training were still in the church. Since the

 

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supply of male musicians was sufficient, women were not in demand but were expected rather to patronize and perform men's music. Furthermore, even though ecclesiastical authority waned, authority in church, state, educational system, and home remained largely in the hands of men. And it was an authority reinforced by the religion that women were spiritually and intellectually inferior to men.

4

Whoever would have thought of employing a female court musician? What woman would have dared offer herself in such a capacity? Why are there so few popular female jazz bands? Is it because the level of musical performance is so high that no woman could achieve it? One may doubt whether there would be many persons who would care to sustain the argument. Certainly no one would who had heard Phil Spitalny's all-woman orchestra. Numberless women have played and do play every one of the instruments one finds in the largest orchestras, and play them well. The fact is that ajazz orchestra of women simply doesn't present the right
decor .
Women prefer all-male bands, but they have no objection to the woman often attached to such orchestras, who sings a few numbers. Nevertheless, a few allwomen symphonic orchestras have appeared and braved the entrenched prejudices of the sexes. Izler Solomon, the first conductor of the first all-woman symphonic orchestra to appear regularly on the air, in a statement published in the
New York Times
of 29 September 1940, said, "It is perfect nonsense to say that women are inferior to men in the world of music. In many instances they are better than men. Women are more sensitive and are apt to have a finer perceptive reaction to phrasing." In the same newspaper, on 26 October 1946, Hans Kindler said of women musicians: "Their ability and enthusiasm constitute an added stimulant for the male performers. . . . They were a veritable godsend to most conductors during the war years. The National Symphony has re-engaged its fifteen women players." And Leopold Stokowski said, "I find that women are equally as talented as men." On the other hand, Sir Thomas Beecham, the English conductor, announced that "women ruin music.'' He said, "If the ladies are ill-favored the men do not want to play next to them, and if they are well-favored, they can't." Jose Iturbi has held that women can never be great musicians. When he

 

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